I entered a gallery exhibit with my four panel allegory "Helping Hands Gifts" which is inspired by my reading of Romans 12:6-13 describing various spiritual gifts and helping others. The exhibit was themed "Inspired" so I felt my entry was appropriate.
To my surprise the gallery awarded me their Inspire award!

Our home has a spring display of Daffodils which gets better each year, not from our own efforts, but by the Grace of God, the maker of heaven and earth. 

I am a member of the local art society and invited the plein aire artists group to paint the daffodils. Several of the members came and went to work sketching and painting daffodils close up. Their individual views of subject was interestingly executed.

I often work in graphite pencil and graphite media. I refer to these drawings as "graphite paintings". Many are done en plein aire as I move about the world. Some, like this one are done from memory while I sat in a restaurant waiting for someone. Every once in awhile they become a reference for a watercolor or other media painting or a part of a painting. Making drawings like this often become value studies preceding the action of actually making a painting. The tree "graphite painted" here is titled so because there is no background to the drawing.

On social media I often post how I make my paintings, at least telling people what colors I used to make them. Usually I list only three colors and a neutral. And, as a result, I get inquiries that ask do I ever use more than three colors ever, or three colors at a time. To answer that, yes, I sometimes use more than one color or shade from the spectrum that is published by the color manufacturers but I generally get the results that I want from just a few colors. Most of the time I use three primary hued colors plus a neutral usually something like burnt umber or burnt sienna or some kind of brown from the from the paints that are available. However there are times that I wish to expand my pallet to incorporate other shades and hues in the painting. When this time occurs in my thinking I go to a more expended range of tubes of color which involve tertiaries and secondaries and mixes that fit what I intend to paint as my subject. 

Other color schemes I use:

•  Selecting colors — one or two — off the primary RYB colors (Reds, Yellows, Blues) on the secondary and tertiary colors and their complementary color opposites on the color wheel. This goes both ways on the wheel - clockwise and counter—clockwise. I then add a neutral, e.g., Paynes Gray, an earth brown tone, and sometimes an earth yellow.
•  Similar to the schema just above, and adding the primary RYB’s, including another earth brown, and another neutral e.g. Neutral Tint or perhaps an actual gray paint.
•  I sometimes add a black and a green shade to the basic RYB set’
•  Then there is the variation of using odd combinations such as Alizarin Crimson for the Red, Spectrum Violet for the Blue, and Cadmium Yellow Deep for the yellow. Sometimes spicing it up by adding a green shade or Prussian Blue Green Shade, plus raw Sienna, or Naples yellow to vary the mixes and get differing neutrals from color mixes.

Counting up the tubes of color, I vary between 3 primary-like colors for the whole thing up to 10 colors and neutrals at the most. All depends on how I want to paint the subject or abstract the subject.

Black - sometimes for adding a deeper depth to a shadow, usually mixed with a shadow neutral. Occasionally I outline something with black. Otherwise all the depth of darker color is done with creating dark neutrals without black.

White - Rarely used in watercolor except to place a small white dot somewhere to highlight some tiny detail. In gouache painting, I mix whites in to lighten or change the hue/tone of a color.

I have read about and listened to other artists who report about being in a certain 'zone' with their mind as they create their art. There was even a recent cartoon movie where in the heavenlies there is a 'zone' where creative people almost enter a heaven like eternity state for awhile when creating "in the mood". For this painting I was definitely in one of those zone moods.

Observing surf and a palm tree studded beach towards a red sun evening, I chose to create a watercolor painting using cadmium yellow, permanent alizarin crimson, and Windsor violet (for the blue). The scene, in my opinion, cried out for an impressionistic abstract treatment of major surf, wind, and fiery sun. Thus "Tropical Sunfire" came to be.

Westering sun or sunsets are an attractive subject for plein aire artists. They also are interesting to many art collectors because of the varied possibilities of what a sunset may look like. 

My painting, "Westering Sun" was done on location on Hawaii (the big island) looking due west. Although the sun became different in hue and color as the sunset progressed, it was is initial impression of the yellow sun shadowing the multiple palm trees that piqued my interest. When encountering such a fugitive, ever changing facet of nature I rely on my camera to capture the initial moment(s) as I set to work. That way I can refer to what grabbed my attention in the first place. Sunsets, golden hour times and early morning/dawn plein aire paintings require planning well so you are set up before the event gets under way.

On this day and time I planned to use only three colors plus a second, lighter blue to do the painting. For my "red" I chose Permanent Alizarin Crimson. The blue is Ultramarine, and the yellow is Cadmium Yellow Light. The lighter blue is Cerulean for the sky. All other colors were based on mixing to get the hues and neutrals needed. Papers I like are Arches (for this painting) and Fabriano. They perform the best for me. When plein aire painting, I like watercolor blocks and I generally keep sizes: 9 x 12, 12 x 18, 15 x 22, and 18 x 24 on hand. I choose the size to use, based on my pre-planning with some regard for the emotion and muse of the moment.

As for execution, well the fleeting moment was laid out quickly and the painting done very rapidly, with the final detailing done from memory in the fading light of day.

In my youth, parents and grandparents were always teaching and admonishing me to not be a braggart. They appeared to assume that others would complement me for what I am able to do and that would be enough fame.

Some of my friends were of Italian descent and alternately being humble and "braggadocio". They admonished each other about that.

If I showed off some of my art, some people would comment about my bragging. A further caution to not talk about myself and what I have the talent for.

So what does "social media" do? For many it is a great medium to indulge in Me Me (meme). So I cautiously post my art works.

Many blogs I have looked at and read a bit of seem to be "Blogadoccio" - blog as a form of meme bragging.

So - what am I doing writing a blog? What do I hope to convey to people who look long enough to read a page or two?

I am reluctant to make posts about art. There are so many, many persons more qualified than I to discuss what art is/isn't; how to paint, sculpt, or weave. Color theory? There is already enough about the science and art about that. Composition, lighting, brands of brushes and colors - knowledge is already overflowing the world about those topics. Art History - ibid, ditto, and better "experts".

If you have gotten this far what do you think an eighty year old artist, who has been doing art since the age of three, should blog about? What would you like to know? I am listening.